Twitteretter

There is currently a big storm brewing in the US over the nomination of Amy Comey-Barrett to the US Supreme Court by incumbent president Donald Trump. Justice Barret is described by the media as being conservative, spousing, amongst others, anti-abortion views and the opinion that the existence of climate change and the fact that it is human caused is a matter of opinion. Abortion is a complicated issue and I will steer clear of it. But man made climate change is scientifically proven nowadays. The scientific method has been extensively used since the XVIII century, bringing about incredible progress and huge increases in standard of living and live expectancy, amongst other things. Denying scientifically proven fact is not being conservative, it is being anachronistically reactionary and dishonest (either with others, if the defended position is not believed, or with oneself if it is). If only the media would describe Justice Barrett in the right terms, not the misleading conservative...

Last night I watched the new David Attenborough documentary, ‘A life of Earth’. It is a powerful witness statement on the biodiversity destruction caused by climate change. it should be watched by every single person on Earth. One obvious conclusion one draws on watching is that the main challenge in solving or mitigating this issue is the difficulty countries face in developing agreements where the global interest is balanced with their perceived short term national interest. It is as if many leaders thought their country can exist even if Earth doesn’t. Climate change and biodiversity extinction are, with pandemics (not only coronavirus, think diabetes, etc.) and inequality, the gravest challenge every human faces. Nationalism prevents their solution, it is not only futile, but prejudicial. We must, to have a chance to solve these issues, shed nationalistic identities and preserve our local, regional and national cultures whilst working as a single species to protect our environment...

I have read with interest news that Exxon Mobil, API and Koch Industries are being taken to court in Minnesota for misleading the public on climate change. These organisations, amongst others, sought to protect their oil businesses by engaging in a 35 year campaign to sew doubt in public debate about the reality of climate change, following what has been known as the ‘tobacco industry playbook’. The objective is not to state facts proving climate change doesn’t exist, which could be challenged and disproven, but to introduce doubt in the public debate, combined with targeting of specific demographics with bespoke advertising. The practice is immoral, but highly profitable. Even if they ultimately lose an eventual lawsuit, as happened with tobacco, the penalties imposed will be negligible compared with the monies made while engaging in these practices. We need much graver penalties, if they are to be prevented in future, and maybe the largest class action ever, humanity vs oil industry?...

  Global warming (or the euphemistic climate change) is the biggest challenge humanity is facing today. Given the lack of consensus about policy to tackle it, the continuous failure to fulfil agreed targets and the disinformation onslaught surrounding it, it is easy to despair, but we cannot afford to. We cannot leave the answer to our politicians only, rely on them to save us from impending disaster in the same way we relied on them for pandemic prevention. Green Parties may be unelectable, due to limited funding, media bias and an extremism tarnish in public perception. We must therefore do more as individuals, as citizens. It is high time to take it seriously, and it is up to each one of us to inform, to convince and to act, thinking about the impact of each one of our decisions and continuously striving to do more. There is a lot that we can do as individuals, if we believe we can have an impact, targeting our consumption, our economic actions and our human to human interaction...